What kind of person were you before, and what have you done?
For most people, this question is very simple, but for Nanahara Takeshi, it was a bit complicated.
He was a transmigrator, and being a transmigrator was complex enough, yet even before his transmigration, his life could've been described as extraordinary, truly out of the ordinary.
His original name was Nanahara Takeshi, born in a third-tier small town in northern China; his family owned a small supermarket. Their financial situation was neither above nor below average. However, when he was eight years old, tragedy struck his family. His parents were involved in a traffic accident while restocking goods and, unfortunately, both lost their lives.
After that, he was adopted by his uncle.
His uncle and aunt also took over the supermarket left by his parents. In theory, they would return it to him once he turned eighteen, but for the time being, they continued to run it.
The supermarket business was not bad, a bit tiring perhaps, but the income was substantial for an average family. However, Nanahara Takeshi received no special treatment. His aunt had two biological sons of her own, one of whom was not even a year old; there wasn't much motherly affection left for him.
Of course, they didn't beat or scold him, but his aunt was fairly unhappy about suddenly having this "outsider" in the house. She would make pointed comments and scrape the bottom of the pot when serving meals.
His uncle remained silent about it all. After all, it was not a big deal for his young nephew to suffer a little. It would be him who would suffer if family harmony was disrupted because of this.
Nanahara Takeshi had a strong sense of self-respect. After knocking on the door countless times without an answer when returning home from school—he knew his aunt was home taking care of the child, she just didn't want to let him in, and he didn't have a key.
He finally understood that this place was not his home. Even though he had an inheritance from his parents, he was still seen as a beggar in his aunt's eyes.
So, he decisively ran away from "home", clandestinely climbing onto a small cargo truck of a circus that was passing through the small town. He fell asleep and by the time he woke up, he was already out of the province—the small town where his home was located was at the border of two provinces.
Such "wandering circuses" were a unique product of the last century. Villages with traditions of fleeing from famine and street performance, people with "skills" as well as individuals with disabilities, would be led by the revered "Elder" to go out and perform. They showcased magic, acrobatics, monkey tricks, comic dialogues, and other acts to earn their keep, even engaging in odd performances such as "walking with dumplings on their feet."
In the 70s and 80s of the last century in China, entertainment was scarce, and these folk circuses or variety show troupes were quite popular in towns and villages. However, with the diversification of entertainment, such circuses gradually became obsolete with the times. In the twenty-first century, they were almost entirely gone, and he had caught the last of it.
After he explained his circumstances, the "Elder" decided to take him in, letting him follow the troupe and do odd jobs, essentially taking pity on him and feeding him. If he ever wanted to leave, he could always go to the police station. The personnel turnover in this kind of circus was very high anyway. After a year or so, it wouldn't be unusual for the entire crew to have changed—he was neither one too many nor one too few. These traveling troupes had a very weak sense of legality, paying no mind to issues like child labor regulations—they were simply impractical.
As a result, he settled in with the circus, and before he knew it, three or four years had passed.
During those years, he trained monkeys, fed donkeys, did odd jobs, ran errands, sold tickets, played the clown, and sometimes doubled as a cook. He secretly apprenticed to learn skills, walked tightropes, smashed rocks, performed magic tricks, warmed up crowds—until the circus was phased out by society and could no longer sustain its operations.
Afterwards, he was officially adopted by the circus's "Elder," who took him all the way to America and opened a fortune-telling shop in Chinatown, starting a career of deceiving and swindling. The "Elder"'s son had studied and worked in America, so it was like going to live with relatives. Plus, promoting feudal superstition would invite persecution from the iron fist of China's governance, and there wasn't much societal belief in the supernatural there either.
When it comes to the Chinese, their attitudes are quite odd.
If the left eye twitches, joy is on its way, wealth is coming!
If the right eye twitches, spit, I don't believe in your nonsense. My fate is in my own hands, not dictated by fate. I'd like to see who dares to harm me!
Frankly, Westerners are easier to fool when it comes to this business.
Nanahara Takeshi was quite precocious and clever by nature, with an exceptionally sharp sense of observation. He served the "Elder" well as a shill and quickly proved to be adept at the job. The "Elder" couldn't really connect with his hardworking, scholarly son, who didn't want to engage in trickery. As a result, the "Elder" passed on all his "skills" to Takeshi, and the two formed a mentor-apprentice relationship.
The "Elder" did have some substance, with a bit of understanding of the eight techniques of the Jianghu: amazement, exhaustion, buoyancy, book, wind, fire, nobility, and necessity. Otherwise, he couldn't have deceived the Westerners so thoroughly. Additionally, there was a family tradition of training one's five senses and memory, which they claimed to have obtained from an incomplete copy of the "Secret Sect's Minor Five Steps" from Tibetan Buddhism.
It was uncertain whether his ancestors acquired it through deceit or theft, but it indeed had some effects.
Nanahara Takeshi did not disappoint the elder, studying hard everything the old man taught him while sneaking into university lectures on psychology and human behavior studies. Soon, he surpassed his master, even transforming the old man's primary business of fortune-telling into conducting séances led by himself, with the elder assisting him—séances were more marketable and profitable than fortune-telling in the United States, and they smoothly became known as "the Mysterious Spirit Child from the East and his devoted servant."
Over seven to eight years, their business thrived, accumulating a solid base of wealthy 'sheep,' and their reputation grew louder. They were even frequently invited to television studios to perform and participate in variety shows. However, "Elder" gradually truly aged, his health declined day by day, and he eventually passed away from cancer.
Nanahara Takeshi gave him a dignified burial, properly observed a hundred-day mourning period, and then went straight back to his hometown. In less than a month, he had driven his uncle and aunt to the brink of madness, effortlessly reclaimed his parents' inheritance along with the profits from over the years, and even added a hefty interest. That money meant little to him, and although giving it away wouldn't hurt, he was such a petty person that he insisted on getting it all back—nobody was going to take advantage of him.
They didn't raise him, so they didn't deserve that money.
The karmic ties were settled, and he had no more attachments in his own country. He planned to return to the United States the next day to continue his role as the "Mysterious Spirit Child"... Well, at nearly twenty, he should be the "Mysterious Spiritual Medium," ready to fleece some capitalist sheep.
Up to this point, his life experience had already been quite peculiar—dramatized, it might make a web novel of one million two hundred thousand words. But on his last night before departure, as he sat on the rooftop drinking to bid farewell to his hometown, lightning struck from above, forked no less, hitting a transformer, the top floor of a nearby residential building, and him.
Struck by calamity out of the blue, he was utterly baffled as the lightning descended upon him. While he dabbled in shady dealings, he had always followed the old rules "No touching the three, no taking the five," and was definitely not a bastard. There seemed to be no reason for him to be struck by lightning.
When he woke up again, he was in Hokkaido—a parallel universe's Hokkaido, to be specific, in the year 1990. The geography was the same, and the course of history was similar, but many of the historical figures and literary works had changed, with only some being the same.
All the reputation, faithful 'sheep,' and wealth he had accumulated over ten tough years were gone, and he had to start all over again. That was unlucky enough, but there was more misfortune to come.
Perhaps as a result of the baptism through time and space, he was imbued with some mysterious energy, making his body delicate and increasingly youthful-looking, as if he had become three to four years younger. His five senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—had also enhanced significantly.
Having undergone long-term training, his senses were already sharper than those of an average person, and after his transmigration, they had been greatly enhanced, reaching levels far beyond those of a normal person.
Initially, he thought it was just an illusion, but he indeed became much more sensitive to light and shadows and could differentiate an increasing number of colors—colors that seemed identical before now had distinctions;
His hearing was also heightened; sometimes, listening to the sound of rain, he could visualize his surroundings, the number of trees, vehicles, and people simply from the pattering noise.
This might seem advantageous, as everyone wants to be a little more perfect, but after two to three months, it began to overwhelm him.
Improved vision was tolerable, except that sudden changes in light blinded him momentarily. As for his sensitive hearing, he could use earplugs if necessary, but having an overly keen sense of smell, touch, and taste was almost killing him.
He felt as though he had the "Emperor's tongue"; if the ingredients were the slightest bit off, or the chef's skills were lacking, or even if a seasoning was slightly over or underused, everything he ate seemed off.
Too much tactile sensitivity was also a curse; rough fabrics, poor tailoring—he'd either feel as though he was wearing a coarse sack or was being painfully squeezed and chafed, as if tortured.
But the most unbearable was his sense of smell; if someone nearby passed even a silent fart, he was involuntarily privy to what they had eaten the night before, a truly indescribable experience...
Life suddenly became much harder, especially after he became "delicate and precious." He spent money like water. After hanging around a youth training center for a while—to obtain legal identification in this world—he seized the opportunity of a local orphanage's closing to forge documents and infiltrate the Sapporo Youth Training Center. From there, he took the middle school entrance exam and got into Hirarano Private Ikuei High School, where he went back to his old trades, ready to make a killing. However, on the first day he opened for business, Kiyomi Liuli set her sights on him.
It was probably karma!
......
These things are long stories when recounted, but reflecting back, they were just moments for Nanahara Takeshi, who couldn't possibly tell Kiyomi Liuli the truth. He simply looked at her pocket and laughed, "Are you sure you want to ask? You've run out of money, haven't you..."
Kiyomi Liuli touched her thin piggy bank wallet, confirming again that she was indeed in abject poverty and couldn't pry any more information out of him at the moment, leaving her unhappy. Unwilling to concede verbally, she retorted, "I don't need to spend money to figure things out. Just wait, I'll find out exactly what you've been up to and what kind of person you really are!"
As the "Higashitama Town Intelligence Support," "the future Famous Detective Miss Liuli," and "the future renowned Detective Chief Inspector Liuli," with her deductive abilities, there were three hundred ways to uncover his secrets, even if Nanahara Takeshi wouldn't talk!